Archive | July, 2008

225 Royally Pardoned

His Majesty King Hamad bin Essa Al-Khalifa, the King of Bahrain I wish to express my thanks to his majesty for pardoning 225 people imprisoned due to their participation in various demonstrations. This generous royal gesture should be followed up immediately by various other steps to ensure that social justice prevails. His majesty might also consider the fact that without such social justice, many of those release and others might continue to demonstrate to express their chagrin at the iniquitous circumstances they find themselves in.

225 imprisoned demonstrators and rioters were released by royal pardon

To enable the prevalence of social justice, a national truth and reconciliation is a dire necessity which Law 56/2002 stands resolutely in the way, an action that will bring closure to years of intransigence by the state security through the last decades of the 20th century whose victims are still suffering while their torturers and murderers walk the earth unmolested and with total impunity.

A law criminalising discrimination in all its forms is another necessity. The employment based on religious confessionalism or any other discriminatory factors must end and all those employers, in both public and private sectors, should be severely penalised if they have the audacity to inculcate such discriminatory practices within their spheres of influence.

These steps if applied will go a long way toward establishing a new and more forgiving culture in this country so that at least our children will live without the continuous shenanigans by both parties which destroy the national psyche and derail our collective efforts in raising our standard of living.

Thank you your majesty. The release of those 225 was welcome news this morning.

Here’s to more good news.

Known blocked sites in Bahrain top 40

I’ve just compiled a new list of blocked websites in Bahrain and I was able to find most of the administrative order numbers instructing ISPs to block them. The new list is available here.

Should you have any information about this issue, please do contact me in confidence.

Batelco Blocked!

In a reversal of fortunes, Batelco finds its own site blocked by a much higher authority than the one it kowtows to: Google!

Several people emailed me a screen grab of Batelco’s site in the latest FireFox browser which severely warns people from having anything to do with Batelco; in fact, it offers a very expeditious get-way for would-be visitors by offering them a button which says “Get me out of here!”

While the dire warning of having anything to do with Batelco is not new, nor is it unique, it is quite germane to the company that offers us untold amount of spam, and through whose servers and collection of IP addresses our business get affected. I am sure that others have suffered from those petulant “undeliverable mail” syndromes that hurls emails back at senders like gleaming hot coals due to their association with Batelco due to its status in the black lists of almost all the major spam-detecting engines.

So thanks to the dependable Google for protected me and countless others who have the forethought to insist on using Firefox which allows for the display of such warnings:

Batelco site blocked by Firefox 3 warning of malicious content

What is the current listing status for www.batelco.com?

Site is listed as suspicious – visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 843 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 284 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 07/27/2008, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 07/27/2008.

Malicious software is hosted on 27 domain(s), including butdrv.com, chds.ru, kgj3.ru.

1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including butdrv.com.

Lackadaisical security policies? Or is it once again complete indifference on Batelco’s part?

I would err on the side of both; why should they even care if they are the de facto source of internet communications in this country? A privilege they hold on to and will continue to do so with the complete aid and support of our very own Government – being its largest shareholder, and one that does not care to put any pressure whatsoever on its child to engender creativity and competitiveness in order to allow Bahraini individuals and companies to compete in a global and much more connected marketplace?

The reason must be manifold of course, but could the chief reason amongst them is the perceived indifference that our own government holds us in by allowing the perpetuation of this situation? Robbing us of our chances of a much more creative and competitive marketspace that cheaper and unrestricted communication could very well engender?

In any case. I urge everyone who has to deal with Batelco to exercise extreme caution. You never know when (not if) you will be breached because you are beholden to them.

Blinkered Horizons

The contrast of the romantic drippings of the apparently hugely popular dubbed Turkish soap Gümüs and the criminal bombings in that country yesterday as well as those in Iraq and India which left over 100 dead and many more injured, cannot be brought more into focus than the exclusive and vociferous condemnation of the television serial by the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia – its highest religious authority:

Stars of Turkish soap irritate Saudi religious authorities

“It is not permitted to look at these serials or watch them. They contain so much evil; they destroy people’s ethics and are against our values,” said the mufti during the closing ceremony of a forum, which took place in Riyadh on Friday. He added that these “malicious” Turkish soap operas corrupt individuals and spread vice in society.

Yet we heard not even a shy beep of objection by the same respected gentleman against the cowardly and criminal bombing acts perpetrated by his own co-religionists against other human beings. To him and his ilk, it seems that a little romance is much more devastating than bombs which rip people to shreds.

“Any TV station that airs them is against God and His Messenger (peace be upon him). These are serials of immorality. They are prepared by people who are specialists in crime and error, people who invite men and women to the devil.” – ed: my emphasis

Someone should remind the gentleman to reset his priorities, don’t you think? While he would probably not hesitate an instant to call those perpetrators of terror across the world as “martyrs” in the full knowledge of their heinous crimes simply because they call themselves Muslims and belong to his clique, he wantonly discards a whole television station and its millions of viewers from God’s mercy.

I wonder if someone reminded the gentleman of the fact that the owners of said offending station are actually his employers, would he change his mind and be the first to plaster himself in front of his own silver screen in anticipation of more syrupy words of love from the effervescent Mohanned imparted to the luscious Noor?

Pomegranate from my garden

Pomegranate from my garden, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I’m not that of a fanatic when it comes to pomegranates, I do like them sometimes, but when it comes from your own garden the story is completely different of course!

Even when the thing is more sour than a lemon, it does taste delicious. At least the first few handfuls and then your eyes start blinking rather rapidly!

I like the pictures though. Have a wonderful Friday and weekend my friends.